A Huge Thank You to XSITE 2009 Sponsors, Speakers, Partners, and Attendees–and a Special Shout-Out to One Particular Friend of Xconomy

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We are taking a deep breath here at Xconomy. On Wednesday we held our biggest, most ambitious event ever: the Xconomy Summit on Innovation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship, aka XSITE 2009, at Boston University.

All told, some 400 people attended the all-day event at BU’s School of Management, which featured what we think is the year’s greatest lineup of leading innovators, entrepreneurs, and public company executives from around New England. It was a rousing day, kicked off by morning keynote speeches by Juan Enriquez and Dean Kamen and culminating in the XSITE Xpo, where 12 leadings startups wowed the audience with back-to-back presentations about how they plan to change the world.

You can read Ryan’s report on the day’s highlights here. But we’d like to take time in this space to thank everyone who made it possible, starting with our fantastic event host, BU’s Office of Technology Development, and all the officials, faculty, staff, and students at Boston University who helped make it possible. Thank you!

We were also supported by a group of gracious sponsors. They include our Gold sponsors: Microsoft and Schwartz Communications, as well as Xconomy’s Charter Underwriters: Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Biogen Idec, EMC, Invest Northern Ireland, J. Robert Scott, Jones Lang LaSalle, the Science & Technology Directorate of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, UK Trade & Investment, and WilmerHale.

We had a great group of event partners as well: the Business Innovation Factory, Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, Massachusetts High Technology Council, MassNetComms, and MITX.

Our warmest thanks to all these great sponsors, as well as to the more than 50 speakers and panelists who generously gave of their time—far too many to name here—and to all our attendees, who helped make the day a lively and productive one, and the event a great success.

And there was one great friend who played an instrumental role in making this all happen. In fact, without him, it may well not have happened: Noubar Afeyan, managing partner and CEO of Flagship Ventures. A big shout out to you, Noubar!

Bob is Xconomy's founder and editor in chief. You can e-mail him at bbuderi@xconomy.com, call him at 617.500.5926. Follow @bbuderi